The Reason of His Bad Cough Will Make Your Skin Crawl

There is an old idiom called ‘catching flies’ for those who sleep with their mouths open. Phil Lyndon proved that label true, when, in a fit of coughing, he spewed out a large ball of phlegm containing a ‘wriggling critter’!

At first, Lyndon, 52, thought he had simply contracted a bad cough. He saw a doctor for it and was given antibiotic treatment. In a hard coughing spell the next day, he was surprised and somewhat horrified when he spewed out a living creature!

Lyndon was alarmed at the thought of a wriggling creature crawling around in his lungs. “I knew instantly that it was not something I could ignore,” he reports.

He immediately contacted his doctor, who sent him to University College London’s Hospital for Tropical Diseases. From there he was immediately admitted to hospital. X-rays of his chest were performed to view any parasitic infestation, as well as blood tests to determine parasitic illness.

The thought of insects entering human bodies is anything but pleasant, but it does happen. A 92-year-old woman experienced the ultimate crawly nightmare when a fly buzzed into her ear and laid eggs. They hatched into 57 maggots squirming around in her ear!

Botfly maggots have a penchant for crawling under the skin of cattle and laying eggs in an encapsulated lump. Apparently, they are not too discriminating, as a man from Colorado found out. He had a terribly itchy scalp and tried many special shampoos to address the issue. Upon an examination by a physician, botfly maggots, each as big around as a small coin, were emerging from eggs laid beneath the skin of his scalp.

Worms entering the body seem the epitome of egregious infestation, but tapeworms are a rather common human parasite. In a revolting tale of tapeworm tyranny, a man in China went mad after a rare species of tapeworm burrowed into his brain.

In fact, parasitic infestations are one of the most misdiagnosed health problems in the U.S. today. Some experts, like Dr. Hazel Parcells, believe that 85 percent of adult Americans are infested with parasitic worms. She reports that worms are extremely toxic and account for many immune diseases.

Hookworms, roundworms, and pinworms are probably the most widely known parasitic worms. Eating raw or undercooked fish gives one of the largest tapeworms in existence free access to the interior of human beings. Once inside the body, the worm consumes up to 100 percent of a person’s vitamin B12, leading to the common ailment of pernicious anemia.

Phil Lyndon was lucky. The hospital pronounced him free of parasitic infestation. Lyndon, a graphic designer, was still curious about the insect he had coughed up. He snapped a close-up photo of the creature in question and sent it to British Bugs, an entomology website. There a bug expert pronounced the creature a mayfly nymph. Nymphs are newly hatched mayflies that take to the water in order to mature. They are not parasitic.

The expert postulated that Lyndon may have ingested the insect while sleeping, as many of them were hatching at that time.

Instead of brooding about his unusual and rather repulsive experience, Phil Lyndon had fun posting the photo of his fly on Facebook. There he received a gratifying flood of comment and speculation. He reported that some people saw the comical side, and wondered why the tiny creature did not vote in a recent election, “Because,” as Lyndon smiled, “he was stuck inside me!”

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